In conversation with Heena Bajaj Rustagi, Founder of Shoshaa
Post-Covid-19 period, what has been Ms. Heena Rustagi’s brainchild Shoshaa’s growth rate?
Shoshaa is a Fashion & Lifestyle Jewellery Brand launched in 2019. 9 months into the business we were hit by the first wave of covid. Uncertain times at such a nascent stage makes you work even harder and that’s what we set out to do. We were preparing ourselves to add more categories to cater to the wider audience but were totally in for a surprise with the steeper growth in sales. We introduced Jewel Rakhis that year and they were such a huge hit that it even took our jewellery sales high. We have been steadily growing at a 100 per cent YoY since 2020.
Ethnic jewellery segment is nascent, your mail underlined Shoshaa’s international presence, which all global markets presently contribute to the company’s turnover?
The market definitely has immense potential as its fast growing and has new players joining every month. The challenge is to sustain after a financial year as brands realise that the market is as competitive as lucrative it looks. New players have to bring a USP to be added in the customer’s cart.
Talking about Shoshaa, we are present internationally in USA, Canada and Dubai with Amazon. 96 per cent of our turnover comes from India though and Myntra is the biggest contributor to this number.
You are operational in D2C segment, what are the challenges?
Our D2C debut is very recent as we launched in the space in Dec’22. We are yet to understand and comment on the challenges which D2C brings in particular, but we do foresee supply chain processes and marketing to be the two areas to nail.
Any plans to enter offline segment via opening exclusive branded outlets?
We do have offline stores in our vision, but right now we are content with online sales. There are new challenges with D2C now but we are ready to learn and grow more in the space.
Any fund raising plans to augment expansion? Who are the Shoshaa’s key investors?
Shoshaa is bootstrapped with our savings. We haven’t raised any money so far but do plan to raise funds in 2023 for majorly funding our international presence, product development and talent acquisition.
What are your views on Indian jewellery sector? What are its challenges, and opportunities?
Indian Fashion Jewellery sector is not new as it was dominated by the retailers for a long time. Post covid as the trend to shop skewed towards online shopping more, things changed. Currently both are striving and adapting to their TG every day but with the growing need of the customer, the challenges also grow multi folds. We have to understand the changing customer behaviour and quickly adapt to it, maintaining the prices without impacting the quality or the artisans is another big challenge. About opportunities in this segment, there is scope for greater profits if the quality in high and designs are on trend.
During Covid-19, many D2C brands were launched and most are successful, what is your view on the topic. How has post-Covid phase evolved for D2C brands?
We launched before Covid 19 but we did see a sales trajectory during these two years which seemed bizarre at the start. We thought we should brace ourselves to see these all orders to be returned by the customer as the customer will soon realise that she can’t wear it for some time and there was uncertainty in the air about what next. But thank god that wasn’t to be! What we understand now is that customer is more online now than they ever were. And the joy of buying online, with the luxury of cod and return is too indulging. Now we know that even though things are back to normal, customer shopping online and D2C brands will thrive even without an offline presence.
Since you are catering on ethnic jewellery segment, please share a little bit about your jewellery manufacturing facility? What is your employee strength?
We work directly with many artisans around India. Most of our manufacturing is done with contractual units in Jaipur and Mumbai. Our office is in Noida and design, marketing, e-commerce support and dispatch is done from there. We have an employee strength of 18 people.
What is you vision 2025?
With going D2C, we have to intensify our efforts in tapping more into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities as we find a good sync with the product and the consumer. Also, our priority is to have a stronger foothold in the international market in the coming year and to create new markets where we find considerable demographics looking for handcrafted fashion. There is a huge consumer base for handcrafted products there and quality is one of our stronger traits.
